Uff this match will be very interesting, lets discuss and try to read tactically what might happen in this match..

My thoughts:

The problem with Madrid, is that they can be in terrible form and play amazing in a big match, when they have to, and are under pressure, players step up to the challenge, you can see this in the Classico's, they might be struggling in form but when they have to play Barca they look like another team.

Man Utd is looking in mean form right now and pretty unbeatable, but we all know that records are made to be broken, and that one thing is good teams in the premier league, and another thing is world class top sides like Real Madrid..

Both teams play similar styles of footy. Mou has played Fergie twice in the champions league knock rounds, once with Porto when they shocked the world and won the tie with a last minute goal, by away differential, and the other time with Inter MIlan, when Fergie came triumphant with relative ease.

Madrid and counterattacks.. Real are the side that can counterattack best in the world in my opinion, in 9 seconds they can be in the oppnents box with great numbers... This might be super effective against a side that likes to push up like Barca, though i don't think Man Utd will struggle with this so much since they are super organized in the back.

Man United and playing comfortable without the ball... Man Utd is a side that in past years has shown the ability that they don't need to play well to win... they can have little possesion, and attack little and pull away bictories pretty consistetly. I think this will help us, because this allows us to go to Bernabeu, with a relatively conservative and safe formation, and still you can say its highly likely that the likes of Van Persie or Rooney or ven the littlepea can slip one in. If we get 1-2 goals which away, w can tak car of businss home in Old Trafford, where we can pull out more guns and attack more if we need to.

Madrid vs Barca and Madrid vs other teams. Its common to hear, that Madrid and Barca are the two best sides in the world. This might be so, but one thing is for sure, Madrid can look strong against Barca, but against other europan sides they don't look as solid. This maks sense since Mou's rep is kinda like "the anti-barca" and he is known to have obsessions to beat the blaugrana side. He learnt to play well against Barca, yet haven't look as strong and unstopabble against other top european teams like Dortmund, Bayern, or even Man City.

Its really hard to read and preddict this match, there will be a lot of tactics involved, one thing is for sure, me thinks Van Persie is in amazing form, and has the ability to get unmarked and into space with tremendous ease, I can see him slipping away from Madrids defense and winning their backs a lot. Give this lad half a second and with his wuality you will regret it. I think wayne rooney and van persrsie will be more decisive than any other madrid individuality..

Issues on the left back. Marcelo is out of form, and Coentrao might not cut it against a team that attacks with fury and potence down that flanc, Valencia and Rafa's 1-2's combinations and overlaps will be a headache, like Lahm and Robben where last year down that side... all match..

Interesting predictions.. I've only watched a few real madrid games this season, so am unfit to judge them, but I believe they have the upper hand. United haven't been in the CL knockout rounds in like, 20 months, and have had relatively easy European opposition since then. (Benfica, Basel, Galatasaray, Cluj. etc) Some players have probably forgotten what a hard european tie is like.
In the same 20 months, Real have played Bayern, Man City, Dortmund, Ajax etc.

Well.. apparently Man United is coming out with a defensive formation... He left out Valencia that would have had a nice time down coentrao's flank, he's likely going to give the ball to Madrid, and bet to crowd the midfield and probably kill it on the counterattack.. We wont have the ball much..

its a pity i was hoping ferguson proposed to play football, and actually attack Madrid, because i wanted us to test there defense, unfortunately Frguson is going to be cautiose with 7-8 men in the back and just Van Persie, Kagawa and Wayne up front...

He will then likely bring out all his guns in the second leg in the theatre.

Well maybe Ferguson learned his lesson after the the final in 2011. Better to let the spanish teams keep the ball and go for the counter attack. Regardless of all the possesion Madrid had, I think United should have won. Giggs and Van Persie both had easy chances.

I was surprised that our only goal came from a set piece, you'd expect Mourinho to have prepared Real to deal with corners.

Firstly, thank you for bringing up this issue. So, I won't be discussing about Real since hardly watch any of their games which means I am not qualify for this opinion.

On the contrary, been watching United's matches consistently and would first, like to highlight their game against Everton. Defensively United were solid but what brought this attention of mine is how Ferguson uses Phil Jones.

The entire first half I was just looking at Jones and at the time, Maruan Fellaini. He was sublime in tracking wherever Fellaini goes meaning Jones had the luxury of roaming outside of his position. In short, man marking.

Similarly, I think Ferguson employed the same strategy and this time on Ronaldo. But let's not take away others Rafael, Evans, Evra and Ferdinand and the team as a whole.

scottS4 wrote:Well maybe Ferguson learned his lesson after the the final in 2011. Better to let the spanish teams keep the ball and go for the counter attack. Regardless of all the possesion Madrid had, I think United should have won. Giggs and Van Persie both had easy chances.

I was surprised that our only goal came from a set piece, you'd expect Mourinho to have prepared Real to deal with corners.

Mate, thats just not the case. Barcelona plays tatctis to have 70% ball of the possesion, and they hadn't lost a ball possesion since guardiola took over, it would be wise to let Barca keep the ball.

On the other hand, Madrid plays counterattack direct football down the wings, with quick coherent passing and lots of rotations, just because both teams are from Spain it doesn't mean they play the exact same style like you are implying anyway. I wouldn't think that "he learnt the lesson" is right, i would think he has an ace under his sleave, but don't forget, with this result he's advancing to the next round.

Clearly, Ferguson, a tactical monster decided to lend the ball to Madrid? Why, easy, its a two legged competition, if he can go through hell in Bernabeu with a favorable result (like the one he got) and take a little bit more risks at home then he's absolutely going to go for that. He doesn't just do it against Madrid, he has done it ny ymatches this season, Totenham the last one. We had like 4-5 clear cut chances, scored one, but spurs had the ball all match. Degea was superb, but dempsey upset us in the 93rd minute. Don't speculate or guess, because Ferguson doens't speculate. I don't mean to correct you in a harsh way but we have to get this right lol.

Heiky, I completely agree with you, i think he marked in zones and personal marks, Jones was all over ozil and ronaldo, and Man United overall did a pretty nice job of neutralizing Madrid's key players without letting them think, they where on top all match.

Now, after the favourable result away, lets see, and logic would imply, that Ferguson takes on Madrid's defense and presses them. On the counterattack we created 5-6 chances including sitters and crossbars and clearances from the line, if we actually come out with an attacking or atleast a more offensive formation it would be interesting to see if Madrid can handle a Wordl class van persie, a geniuis Wayne, quick valencia and just the precious attacking football that we have generated this season when we want to, that has us 1st place in league, etc

This is why I disagreed with you Scotts, because Man United HAS the weapons to play Madrid eye to eye, not like he does so with Barca that just toyed us two finals straight, but Madrid has shown with time, that when top sides attack them they can break, I don't want to mention Bayern Munchen, Dortmund, or City again but i will i have to. They are to two top teams and there's no real reason in which Man United can't score 2-3 goals against Madrid in the theatre, the only reason would be ofcourse, if Ferguson decides to park the bus again